II Kings 12:15 They did not require an accounting from those to whom they gave the money to pay the workers, because they acted with complete honesty.
Periodically we notice how wealthy we are and how poor believers are in other parts of the world, and we either give some money to a cause that will help them or we might pray for them, that it rains and they have a good harvest, or something like that. Then we move on with the busyness of our lives, perhaps for a moment, thankful for all that we have. However, some of those same people pray for us, that in our abundance, we recognize that we still need God..
As I thought through this passage, a lot of things came to my mind; obviously the above thought among them. It is hard to imagine what those early believers in Acts experienced or these Old Testament believers, so enraptured with the God of their faith, that their possessions had little hold on them. Not only did they give willingly, without hope of personal gain or immediate recognition, but they gave with closed eyes. "Here it is," and they put it into the basket to be used however the leaders felt it should be used...no strings, no accounting, just trust.
How far we have come from that!!! I wonder if it the farther we get from the garden, the farther we get from the cross, the more preoccupied we become with our own rights and our own stuff and our own interests. The idea that we have to give (Ephesians 4:28) is a foreign concept. I wonder at the freedom and the joy they must have experienced, to be freed of possessiveness, to live in faith and trust.
This summer we have college students living with us again, and it has been interesting what I have learned about myself, about how tightly I was held by routine, by control...my control. And also interesting when I learned again the freedom of just letting go, of living the adventure of trusting God, of just being available and holding very loosely what He has given me.
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